Keeping It Real On Social Media

We scroll through everyone’s life and see all the happy, happy people doing fun and amazing stuff, looking perfect in their perfect lives.  Oh, once in a while we will run across a full-time complainer and sharer-of-all-that-is-wrong-in-the-world, but so often it is about showing everyone the best parts of us.  How in love we are.  How many friends we have.  All the cool places we travel to.  I’m not saying all this is a bad thing, we should enjoy our lives and share our lives and relish all that God gives us.  However, sometimes it’s easy to start feeling bad about ourselves when we are comparing our lives to something we only see half of.

Stepping away from technology.

I’ll be honest, about a year ago I deleted all my social media accounts.  It seemed like I never measured up to “society” around me.  I never felt as pretty, as rich, or as interesting as everyone else.  I also went through a time where I felt intimidated to share what was in my heart, never sure how to express some of my beliefs, afraid that I’d get a snarky private message because I offended someone.  Mostly, deep down, I was afraid I would get laughed at just like in school.  The odd kid out.  We all want to fit in.  We all want to be liked.  Some things never change.

Things aren’t always what they seem.

Unplugging from social media made me realize how insecure I had become.  It showed me that I was looking at people and myself in a distorted way.  I started to get more into God’s Book instead of Facebook and my thinking started to change.  1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people, royalty, a holy nation, God’s very own possession.  As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”   We can get stuck in envy or depression when we are playing compare and contrast.  I realized it doesn’t matter what’s trending online, I would always be me and muster up the courage to be a “real” me and encourage others to be the “real” them.

Does social media ever make you question who you are? Or who you want to be?